Re: The smaller bits of history
 

and then there was what 276 did....

Re: The smaller bits of history
 

What about the old rotating "cop" lights with the ability to change out the colored dome to indicate what alliance you were on, last used in 2003.

I still have a blue dome sitting in one of my book shelves.

Re: The smaller bits of history
 

Ohhh we should bring back the FIRST 101's!!

Some of my favorites...

In 1996 the Human players actually had to SIT on the floor, with seatbelts that strapped them into the floor!

The old days of Rumble at the Rock were amazing. This very first FIRST offseason event was held in Plymouth MA, by the recently renewed team 23! Many teams camped at this event to save money, and in 1996, there was a giant hurricane (I think it was Bertha) that made it absolutely crazy for any team that was carrying their robot in the back of a pickup truck!! (we may have raced into the venue 5 minutes before it started frantically wiping the robot off with towels because the tarp wasnt strong enough for the hurricane!)

The 1999 Game Objects might easily have been the best sleeping objects in the history of FIRST - Floppies were an almost silk material packed with styrofoam peanuts and lined with looped velcro.

I don't know the starting or end years, but I know at least 96-99 teams were allowed to have two drive coaches. This was one of my favorite parts of the drive team, as you could get past that whole student vs mentor coach debate and just have one of each!

Again my memory is fuzzy on the years, but it might have been 1997 where FIRST allowed the dimensions to expand to 36"x36"... which horribly didnt allow robots to fit through standard doorframes!! Too many teams learned this the hard way!

1996 competition (and maybe a few years prior?) were held on a stage inside Epcot. Several mascots overheated, and some were mistaken for disney characters and ended up having to give autographs!! 1997 was the first year of Tent City outside of Epcot.

For many years, the robots didn't have the Master Breaker switches we now know so well... we actually had giant fuses that were used to protect the robot components from damage.

We used to program in PBasic... no fancy C or Labview or Java... PBASIC... try implementing a random number generator in that!!


(BTW, there was a girl from the Thunderchickens doing research at champs on the "way back when" stories.. anyone know who she is and if she finished her project?? I'd love to see it!)

Re: The smaller bits of history
 

Replaced by those flags that gave the queuers fiberglass splinters. And they always fell out. And the flag holder was one of the most restrictive parts in the rules ever.

Re: The smaller bits of history
 

The flags started in 2006 I believe. 2004-2005 was a flashing square LED which I believe was also the diagnostic light which we now have the amber one.

Re: The smaller bits of history
 

I can't believe the square diagnostic lights went away 8 years ago... that makes me feel old!

Perhaps it says something about how well the typical team reads the rules in that it was extraordinarily difficult to find a team that could successfully glue a 1/2" end cap onto a 12" long piece of 1/2" PVC and then mount it within 10 degrees of vertical on the top of their robot without drilling holes in it in 6.5 weeks. :rolleyes:

Of course, 1276 spent our entire Thursday trying to put our flag holder somewhere the inspectors were happy with (our entire superstructure was a big rotating linkage), so I can't talk.

What was the deal with 3 team alliances in 2002-2004. I know you still picked 3 teams, but were alliances required to play each robot once per round? Once per tournament?

Re: The smaller bits of history
 

Pre-2002: Each alliance picked an extra robot for eliminations, but they were not required to participate in any elimination matches. So you ended up with teams getting credit for being part of winning alliances without actively participating in any of their elimination matches. (I know this was the setup in 2001, but I can't speak definitively on 2000 or 1999.)
2002-2004: Each alliance picked an extra robot, but every member of the alliance was required to play at least once in each best-of-three round. This led to some interesting gamesmanship trying to anticipate which two robots your opponents were going to send out, and deciding which two you should send out.
(IIRC, 2005 was the first year of the current backup bot rules.)

Re: The smaller bits of history
 

Yes, you can deduce from this that there were Motorola teams 110, 112 and 113 that are no longer around. Team 101 started as an independent sponsor (LoDan), then was acquired by Motorola for a while and then spun back off. They are looking for sponsors if anyone in Chicago area would like to help a great team. ( My Alma Mater, St. Patrick H.S.)

Re: The smaller bits of history
 

It was indeed the situation in 2001.

In fact, 2001 was the first year that 95 won a regional. We were the alliance captain, but the 'bot was pretty tired at that point so we didn't play a single elimination match. The 'backup' pick played for us the whole time.

2001 was sort of a funny year game wise, all things considered...

Re: The smaller bits of history
 

How would have it worked with simply bank of chargers? I saw some cordless drill batteries that are still in use to customize some devices.